


Hard Truths

by Dissenter



Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: Angst and Humor, Binge Drinking, Drinking & Talking, Drinking Games, Drunken Confessions, Drunken Kissing, Drunkenness, F/F, F/M, M/M, Never Have I Ever, basically there's a lot of drinking in this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-15
Updated: 2015-05-15
Packaged: 2018-03-30 17:41:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3945778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dissenter/pseuds/Dissenter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Matt, Foggy, Karen, and Claire, have been drifting apart due to all the lies and stress and resentment, so they get drunk to try and work things out. While drunk someone has the brilliant idea of playing never have I ever, to try and get all the lies and secrets straightened out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hard Truths

Hard truths  
It’s a children’s game, meant for children’s secrets but they’re playing for adult stakes. It was Foggy’s idea. It was too hard to talk about straight up, for all of them, so now they’re sitting on the office floor with a bottle of Josie’s eel juice trying to pretend they’re still teenagers. It starts with the drinks and the bitter awareness of the distance that the secrets has forced between them, and somehow in the alcoholic haze it seems easier to talk about the things they haven’t done than the things they have. So now they sit playing “never have I ever” with things that no-one should ever have done. Declaring their innocence like an attack on each other’s sins.

  
Matt goes first  
“Never have I ever killed a man.” And it’s true, he may have put more than one guy in a coma, may have beaten men bloody, and crippled them for life, but he’s never killed a man. Karen drinks, her memory filled with the smell of gunpowder and blood, before biting back viciously with…  
“Never have I ever tortured a man” And now both Matt and Claire drink, Claire ignoring the surprised looks from Foggy and Karen, as she tries to defuse the bitterness with her declaration…

  
“Never have I ever been found half dead in a dumpster.” As Matt drinks with a subtle self-deprecating grin, it hits Foggy like a knife to the chest. Bringing up memories of a stranger bleeding out in front of him, that turned out to be his best friend, and so he’s crueller than he wants to be when he says…  
“Never have I ever, lied to a friend about who I was.” And Matt’s eyes might be blank but his face tightens as he drinks. He looks like he wants to say something but has no idea what, so instead he continues the game.

  
“Never have I ever, given up on a friend.” And while both Karen and Claire drink, each remembering friends that had ceased to be worth the name, and their own decisions to walk away, it’s Foggy who is cut to the bone by it. Because he had come so close to giving up on Matt, that night when he found out about Matt’s vigilante hobby, and he knows that if he had he would never forgive himself. Karen’s next declaration is less accusation and more acknowledgement.

  
“Never have I ever, stitched up a wound.” All three of the others take a swig, Matt with that wistful look that means he is thinking of his father, Claire with a sense of pride that she’s making good use of the long hours of medical training, and Foggy with what is almost disbelief, it wasn’t something he had ever picture himself doing, he felt nauseous at the sight of blood for God’s sake. It’s Claire’s turn next, she decides to make it harder this time.

  
“Never have I ever tried to destroy myself over something that’s out of my control.” For the first time Foggy isn’t thinking of Matt as he drinks, his mind instead flooded with thoughts of a lawsuit, of a tenement block, of a sweet old lady who died because he told her to keep fighting, because he’d thought he could win when he was so far out of his depth he didn’t even know he was underwater. Karen thinks of Union allied, of hit men, and hard drives, and Wilson bloody Fisk, and Ben Urich who’d told her she should stop and then helped her when she wouldn’t listen, of how she couldn’t let it go, of the price paid for her stubbornness. As for Matt, he thinks of his city, of night after night fighting countless small atrocities, of coming back bloodied and bruised, knowing that nothing has really changed, knowing that one day he won’t get back up out of the dumpster and the city will roll on regardless. They drink deep. Foggy decides to do what he always does and lightens the tone…

  
“Never have I ever said no to free drinks.” And he and Matt grin as both girls drink.

  
“Hey that’s unfair and you know it. For girls, free drinks tend to have strings attached.” Karen is drunk enough to be indignant, and Claire backs her up with an arm around her shoulder. Foggy just laughs.

  
“Fine then”, Karen throws down the gauntlet, “Never have I ever had to hide an inconvenient errection.”

  
“That was a bit below the belt wasn’t it?” Foggy quips as he and Matt finish their drinks and pour out refills. Matt just groans in disbelief as the pun.

  
“Never have I ever been to a strip club.” Matt says with a completely straight face.

  
“Damn you Murdock” Foggy growls before drinking, only to almost choke on his eel juice when he sees Claire and Karen drink too.

  
“Hen night” Claire responds to his expression with a shrug, Karen is a little more outspoken.

  
“Hey, this is the modern world, women have the equal right to objectify others for their appearance.”

  
“She’s right you know”, is all Matt says, grinning. “It’s equal opportunity degradation. I’m just waiting for a strip club that is properly accessible to the visually impaired.” Claire decides that this is probably a good point to end this tangent, so she interjects.

  
“Never have I ever sung karaoke.” The other three drink, all the while giving her a look that clearly states what the hell have you been doing with your life, which she thinks is a bit unfair. Foggy’s next one is only half funny.

  
“Never have I ever been arrested.” Karen is suddenly sobered by the memory of her arrest, but the sight of Matt and Claire, both drinking as well, is enough to replace self-pity with curiosity.

  
“What on earth did you get arrested for?” Matt turns bright red and mumbles something about a bar fight while Foggy sniggers.

  
“He hit a guy over the head with a cucumber. It was epic.” Karen files this story away for further enquiry when she’s sober enough to appreciate it. After some pushing Claire admits to being caught with a joint, and then mouthing off to the copper that caught her, with the upshot being a night spent in the cells. By this point they’re all drunk enough to be silly, and the game has reached that inevitable point where people start to talk about sex.

  
“Never have I ever had sex with someone of the same gender.” Claire doesn’t move, but Foggy and Matt both look slightly shifty.

 

“Define having sex, I mean, does it have to be all the way or do umm, adjacent activities count.” Foggy asks. Karen just shrieks in triumph.

  
“I knew it, I was right. Claire you so owe me a tenner.” Claire grumbles before handing it over. Matt looks confused.

  
“What’s going on?”

  
“Nothing for you to worry your pretty head about sweetie.” Matt just tilted his head towards Foggy before asking in a resigned tone.

  
“They had a bet on whether we’d had sex or not didn’t they?”

  
“Fraid so mate.” Foggy sighed.

  
“I vote we switch games to truth or dare. It’ll make it easier to get retribution.” Foggy’s response was immediate.

  
“No way, we are never, ever, playing truth or dare again. Not after the last time.”

  
“I enjoyed the last time.” Matt manages to look slightly like a kicked puppy but Foggy stands his ground.

  
“That’s only because you won. The rest of us nearly died of heart attacks. No more truth or dare. Ever.”

  
“Fine, but I would totally have dared Claire to kiss Karen.” Foggy’s expression turns considering.

  
“Maybe we can come to an arrangement.”

  
“Don’t be so silly you guys. I’d totally kiss Karen, she’s like super-hot, you don’t need to dare me to do it, see look I’ll do it right now.” Then before Karen realized what was going on, Claire lunges towards her and kisses her hard.

  
“We should totally have brought popcorn.” Was Foggy’s response

  
“Easy for you to say, you can actually see it.”

  
“Oh yeah, right, sorry Matt, So Karen’s like really going for it, like tongue and everything, and it looks like Claire is giving as good as she gets, and… oh my god Claire just stuck her hand down Karen’s top…”

  
The girls break off their kiss so Karen can say “Fuck you Nelson.” Foggy tries making a placating gesture.

  
“Hey, I was just ensuring equal access for the blind, you’re the ones who should be ashamed of yourselves. Failing to ensure your exhibitionism could be properly appreciated by all.” Claire echoes Karen.

  
“Fuck you Nelson.” Matt laughs at them all, before deciding to continue the game.

  
“Never have I ever walked in on my roommate having sex.” Foggy growls in response, as he drinks.

  
“That’s not fair, you totally have an early warning system.” Then with a sudden evil smirk. “Besides, you liked it.” Matt doesn’t deny it, just ducks his head and grins. Karen speaks next, having clearly reached the soppy drunk stage of the evening.

  
“Never have I ever had friends like you guys.” They all take a moment to feel warm and mushy inside, not one of them drinks. Claire follows with the declaration

  
“Never have I ever been to law school” for the sole purpose of getting Matt and Foggy more drunk, on the basis that they needed to catch up with her and Karen. Foggy’s speech is slightly slurred as he states…

  
“Never have I ever been to confession.” Absolutely no-one is surprised when Matt downs his drink, Claire drinking isn’t much of a shock either, Karen on the other hand…  
“I thought you were Anglican?” Foggy had to ask.

  
“Well yeah, but after the thing with Wesley, I needed to talk to someone, and I figured if it helped Matt…” her voice trails off uncomfortably. There is a tense silence before Matt decides to distract the others from her by adding his own sombre contribution to the shifting tone of the evening.

  
“Never have I ever, felt totally safe and secure.” And it’s the truth, even when he was little, when he could see, and his dad was still alive, there was always that nagging fear, do we have enough money to pay the rent, what if dad gets hurt really badly this time, what if, what if. And of course after everything that happened, real safety, real security, only seemed to slip further out of reach. He’s not entirely surprised when none of the others drinks either, after all in this day and age if anyone can ever feel totally safe and secure it isn’t them. Even if it weren’t for Fisk and Daredevil and all the crap they’d gotten mixed up in they wouldn’t feel safe, not really, safety is a luxury that belongs to a specific type of people. And that type certainly isn’t the ordinary people just trying to live their lives day to day. You might be able to snatch happiness and entertainment and love and friendship out of the gaps between the paycheck and the rent, but you can never feel entirely safe. There’s always that knowledge at the back of your mind that if you don’t pay very close attention your whole life can fall apart, and there is no safety net. Ordinary people don’t get to feel secure, even when they’re extraordinary, it’s nothing special, but it hurts all the same.

  
As the night goes on that truth sticks with them, through the laughter and the tears and the sharp flashes of bitterness, and the burning comfort of sympathy. They aren’t safe, they don’t feel secure, but in that, they are just like all the other inhabitants of hells kitchen and that in itself is a comforting thought. They are not alone. They have each other, despite all the secrets and lies, and beyond that they have their fellow residents of hells kitchen, who they spend their lives trying to help. It isn’t safe, but it feels right anyway.


End file.
